Recent trends in the U.S. Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) workforce

While behavioral and social sciences occupations comprise one of the largest portions of the “STEM” workforce, most studies of diversity in STEM overlook this population, focusing instead on fields such as biomedical or physical sciences. This study evaluates major demographic trends and productivity in the behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) workforce in the United States during the past decade. Our analysis shows that the demographic trends for different BSSR fields vary. In terms of gender balance, there is no single trend across all BSSR fields; rather, the problems are field-specific, and disciplines such as economics and political science continue to have more men than women. We also show that all BSSR fields suffer from a lack of racial and ethnic diversity. The BSSR workforce is, in fact, less representative of racial and ethnic minorities than are biomedical sciences or engineering. Moreover, in many BSSR subfields, minorities are less likely to receive funding. We point to various funding distribution patterns across different demographic groups of BSSR scientists, and discuss several policy implications.

尽管行为与社会科学相关职业是科学、技术、工程、数学（STEM）劳动力群体中占比最高的类别之一，但绝大多数STEM多样性相关研究均忽略了这一群体，转而聚焦生物医学或物理科学等领域。本研究针对过去十年间美国行为与社会科学研究（BSSR）劳动力群体的主要人口统计学趋势与产出水平展开评估。分析结果表明，不同BSSR领域的人口统计学趋势存在显著差异。在性别平衡层面，所有BSSR领域并未呈现统一趋势；相关问题具有领域特异性，经济学、政治学等学科的男性从业者数量仍多于女性。本研究同时发现，所有BSSR领域均存在种族与族裔多样性不足的问题。事实上，与生物医学科学或工程领域相比，BSSR劳动力群体对少数种族与族裔的代表性更低。此外，在众多BSSR子领域中，少数族裔获得科研资助的概率更低。本研究揭示了BSSR科学家不同人口统计学群体间的各类科研资助分配模式，并探讨了相关政策启示。